Richmond Hill was home to Richmond Mumford Pearson, Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 1858-1878. It was there that he held a unique law school, teaching more than 1,000 students in a twenty-year period. The building still stands today but is in a bad state of repair and is slowly falling into ruin.

Gerald W. Johnson, writer, journalist, editor, essayist, historian, biographer, and novelist, was born in Riverton in 1890. He was the son of Archibald Johnson, editor of CHARITY AND CHILDREN, and his uncle was Livingston Johnson, editor of the BIBLICAL RECORDER.